M1 Carbine range session

[mustanggt]

Just got this one the other day and took her to the range yesterday. Took some factory ammo and my handloads. Magtech shot dirty and wasn't real accurate. Sellier & Belloit was underpowered and not accurate at all. BVAC was accurate and my handloads surprised me. Target: left is BVAC and right is my handloads.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=36243&stc=1&d=1317565275 http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=36244&stc=1&d=1317565286 http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=36245&stc=1&d=1317565299

[Ben]

Did you mention how far you were shooting ?

[mustanggt]

50 yards. Wouldn't look that good at 100. Will try 100 next time. Those targets are the small ones not the full size ones.

[roverboy]

Good shootin' handloads. What model and year is your Carbine?

[mustanggt]

It's an Inland receiver from between Aug. 42- June 43. Barrel is Inland 12/44. Don't know about other parts just yet. Stock is Inland also.

[jimb16]

Go to the CMP web site and look up the section on getting the best accuracy out of your carbine. There are a number of things you can do to tighten up those groups a whole lot. At 50 yards, the groups should be 3 inches or less. I've got 12 carbines and with my cast bullet loads, the worst one holds just over 3 at 50. Most average right around 4 inches at 100 and some shoot even tighter than that.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I had a very similar experience recently.

Took out the Postal Meter to the range along with some handloads I'd made from pull-down surplus ammo. It was originally loaded with a 105gr FMJ-RN magnetic bullet in corrosive, too-hot-loaded ammo (cracked a bolt in another guys' Carbine, so he gave it to me to pull-down), but I salvaged the bullets and cut the powder charge by 7% and loaded them in US military cases with boxer primers.

My buddy had brought out some modern military "75m Instant Feedback Targets" which look like a silhouette of just the head and shoulders of an enemy soldier. We set up at 100 yards and 200 yards. Fired at 100 yards, slow-fire, from a rest, all of the bullets (15) easily went into the 5" center circle of the target (probably a 4-4.5" group). At 200 yards, another magazine full (15) sent 7 into the circle and 8 within an inch or two of the circle - all low.

Before you think I'm a great shot, to be honest, I give a lot of the credit to that target. It's about 24" wide, and at 200 yards, it sat perfectly atop the front sight post of the Carbine. Easy to see and made aligning the sights (elevation and windage) really easy. Upon switching to the 200 yard target, I also slid the rear sight up to the 200 yard elevation mark, and I figure my powder charge was a little light, which accounted for the slightly low bullet hits. Still a 6-7" group at 200 yards is quite acceptable with an M1 Carbine, as far as I'm concerned!! A LOT better than I thought it would accomplish.

I thought I'd saved the targets from that day, but I checked the back of the truck and the garage, and I didn't. Wish I could've posted pics of those targets!

[leadman]

Carbines can surprise you sometimes. I made some loads with 296 and those cursed jacketed 110gr HP bullets from Sierra. They hung thogether right around 1" at 100 yards out of my scoped m-1 carbine. My cast with the Lee 113gr RFN is around 2" at the same range. Have a small 4X Simmons on it.
With the Aguila it is around 4" at 100 yards.
Used to have a Universal that was a real shooter also.